Using mobile in USA

redux

There is little or no discussion of the phone itself. USA uses different 2g and 3g and LTE bands than here.

Whilst having just a cheap dual band 2g phone is rarer nowadays, there are some, and they won't work there at all (900 & 1800 here; 850 and 1900 there)

Same sort of thing applies for 3g, can be 850 1700 1900 2100, mostly AT&T 850 and some 1900 with the variations on regional operators. This might be why one person above found a much better data connection on AT&T than T-Mobile's 2g. It means for example my 900 & 2100 3g wifi modem will only have 2g there.

4g bands, I don't know enough about but I understand there are several around the world and theirs are very probably different.
Possibly different system. And far from national coverage

I agree about Toggle Mobile as a prospect for someone who doesn't need a monthly bundle.

The advice about saving data could be more detailed. Smartphones can use plenty of data without the user doing anything. I've seen nearly a gigabyte a week for a family of 4 or 5 not doing much deliberate connection, just a few emails, games, but mostly silent app updates.

For Android and iPhones you ought to switch off all automatic application updates, else you may surpass the 200 MB MSE mention in only a week without knowing what hit you. Also good to restrict synchronisation of messaging and email; just do messages manually when needed, or at least lengthen the synchronisation interval. If possible set emails to headers only, read the important ones and leave the rest until back in wifi. Also disable background connection permissions for most applications. For modest browsing use Opera Mini or similar app with data compression at their servers, and turn images off most of the time, which together can save about 98%

And for VoIP calls, still recommending Skype and Viber for calls to phone numbers? Oh dear. There are loads of VoIP providers and many are significantly cheaper, fraction of a penny to UK landlines, penny or less to UK mobiles. Some have free calls to USA numbers.

goldcd

Just had a couple of corrections to add to the original article (some of which have been covered above):

1) If you want to forward to a temporary Three number when you travel, you don't need to leave your normal SIM in a phone. If you go to settings and turn on call forwarding, forwarded calls don't go through your phone - it sends an instruction to your operator to forward them.
i.e. Get Three SIM and note down your number. Forward your calls to the Three number. Swap out your SIM for the Three one - just one phone required. Anybody calling either number will make your phone ring (just if it's your normal number, you'll be charged a UK->UK call charge for the forward, or it'll come off your minutes).

2) If you don't like the reception of the default roaming partner Three connect you to in the US, you can go into settings and change it.
I had a slight wobble that maybe only the default was 'free' - but they all are.

3) And this is slightly off-topic - but I've recently switched to Three as my provider in the UK and am pretty happy. 4G isn't as advanced as some of the others, but it is 'free' (and I'm slightly bemused !!!!!! people are wanting to do that can't be done on 3G).
Reason for this plug is that I simply don't feel they're trying to shaft me on things like 0800 calls. I have a tariff I pay each month, and when the bill comes in, that's what I have to pay.

Rufotron

Apologies for this I've had a scout about and got a bit baffled .
Went to New York recently , got a pay and go sim from ee so that I could contact my wife in emergencies . My mobile is a work phone so set to U.K. Only
I set up this package where I could have unlimited calls texts for a month or so and some extra that would be towards the allowance when we got to America .
When we got there it didn't work .... Perhaps roaming wasn't set correctly I'm not sure I'm no expert ? It was only a cheap phone if bought for the trip
Anyway I'm going again for a couple of weeks . Can anyone advise the best thing to do ? Is there a particularly good sim available from a U.K. Supplier And is it just a case of making sure it's set up correctly ?
Or should I get a USA phone card like at and t and set that up when we arrive ? I assume they can be bought here to save time in America ?

Cheers

glentoran99

what kind of phone do you have? needs to be tri band for america

VestanPance

A lot of the mobile providers turn have a setting for using the phone abroad turned off as the default setting. Check your account to make sure you are able to use the phone abroad.

If your phone is unlocked then it would be worth checking out Three, as they allow you to use to use minutes, texts and data as you would in the UK.

I'd be surprised if any modern mobile didn't support tri-band.

Rufotron

The one in question was a very basic model . Maybe I'll put a sim on my normal phone instead . It's a Nokia windows phone

grumbler

Check the frequencies your 'basic' phone supports at http://www.gsmarena.com/

http://www.gsmarena.com/network-bands.php3?sCountry=United+States

A smartphone should be fine, but take care of the data roaming. Make sure it is disabled.

Rufotron

Cheers so any p and go sim should do ?ee or whatever

grumbler

Any sim with enabled roaming, but the phone has to have the frequencies used over there.

NiftyDigits

A bit confused by your writings.
One cannot use a EE PAYG SIM allowance in the USA.
You can do this with a 3 UK PAYG SIM and an accompanying bundle.

Feel At Home